(WASHINGTON) – Last month, United States Cattlemen's Association (USCA) Marketing & Competition Committee Member and manager of St. Onge Livestock Co. Justin Tupper attended the third installment of the USDA Livestock Mandatory Price Reporting (LMR) Cattle & Beef Stakeholder Meetings to discuss opportunities for improvement to the law. The ongoing meetings, beginning in November 2016, were directed by the reauthorization of the law in 2015 to "analyze current marketing practices and LMR price and supply information reporting services, and identify legislative and regulatory recommendations." USCA played a key role in working with Congress in the 2015 reauthorization to implement these meetings.

USCA advocated for the following changes that were successfully adopted:

Divide negotiated trade into 0-14 and 15-30 delivery windows, reporting price and volume when permitted by confidentiality for each delivery window. In the event that price can't be reported, continue to report volume in the head counts for national reports, regional reports, and five area reports.

Following the meeting, Tupper issued the following statement:

“USCA was pleased with the adoption of our proposed changes. The cattle and beef price reporting program was sorely due for an upgrade. We are confident that this improvement to the law will have a positive impact on transparency and true price discovery in the marketplace.” Justin Tupper, St. Onge Livestock Co. manager

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"USCA was pleased with the adoption of our proposed changes. The cattle and beef price reporting program was sorely due for an upgrade. We are confident that this improvement to the law will have a positive impact on transparency and true price discovery in the marketplace.

"However, important clarifications on the definition of 'cattle committed for delivery' and other reporting definitions were not approved. There was great support amongst the majority of groups for these changes, but ultimately, they were left on the table due to ongoing opposition from packer groups and others."

"I do hope these groups reevaluate their positions and come back to the table ready to move forward on this issue. USCA will continue to advocate for changes to LMR that benefit U.S. cattle producers by adding additional data to the marketplace to better inform marketing decisions."

Since 1946, LMR has been a service provided by USDA AMS on a voluntary basis. In 2001, a mandatory price reporting system began for cattle and beef. Packers who slaughter 125,000 head or more each year are required to report. There are currently 38 live cattle plants covered under the law, with LMR reporting 92% of all fed cattle transactions.

Packers are required to submit two daily live cattle reports at 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM on current established prices for all steers and heifers (fed cattle only) and all committed and delivered cattle volumes. Packers are also required to report slaughter, packer owned and forward contract cattle each Monday morning, in addition to a weekly report on cattle premiums and discounts. Other reporting forms due are a daily Cow/Bull Plant Delivered Bids and Live Cow/Bull Daily Purchase Report.

More information on LMR and the stakeholder meetings can be found HERE.